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Saturday, 22. July 2006
Little tidbits.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 00:34h
Socks for the Nephew
Never let nephews have cold feet. Not even in summer.
My SIL asked me to knit a pair of socks from the left-overs of a pair she knit for herself - while she is knitting some for him from the leftovers of a pair for me... :)
Siiilk... I did a swatch!
When silk is calling out to you, succumb and let the 30.000 metres / kilo pull out your teeth
I love this yarn. I found it in a small store for 120 kroner, or roundabout 15 dollars. 100 gram cone, 3000 metres. I hope that the Shetland Shawl by Hazel Carter from the Gathering of Lace book will fit the bill!
Marianne!
Mmmhh. Good girl. Marianne grows, and Elizabeth Zimmermann to the rescue for a really neat set-in sleeve.
Welcome back to Marianne.
On scout camp she was at home, and when I get her sleeve finished the EZ book was at home when I... was not. So she had a hiatus, but now she is at 2" above the armhole and growing! Yes!
Have a really nice day.
Lene
Never let nephews have cold feet. Not even in summer.
My SIL asked me to knit a pair of socks from the left-overs of a pair she knit for herself - while she is knitting some for him from the leftovers of a pair for me... :)
Siiilk... I did a swatch!
When silk is calling out to you, succumb and let the 30.000 metres / kilo pull out your teeth
I love this yarn. I found it in a small store for 120 kroner, or roundabout 15 dollars. 100 gram cone, 3000 metres. I hope that the Shetland Shawl by Hazel Carter from the Gathering of Lace book will fit the bill!
Marianne!
Mmmhh. Good girl. Marianne grows, and Elizabeth Zimmermann to the rescue for a really neat set-in sleeve.
Welcome back to Marianne.
On scout camp she was at home, and when I get her sleeve finished the EZ book was at home when I... was not. So she had a hiatus, but now she is at 2" above the armhole and growing! Yes!
Have a really nice day.
Lene
... link
Sunday, 16. July 2006
Sweet, slow days.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 20:03h
Dont you love those too?
The sweet, slow days of summer, when the sun beats down and you sit and talk, sip cool water and knit slowly, put the knitting away and just enjoy the sun.
Days like these have been mine for the last week, and there are many more to come as summer rolls on and the family moves on to the summer cottage.
At the scout camp, I have not knitted many a stitch - a swatch in "Deep Sea" 8/2 Kauni is all I have done.
Nevertheless, the Rainbow Kauni leftovers were knitted into a shawl/scarf - I thought I was knitting a small slightly lopsided triangle shawl, but I had underestimated Myrna Stahmans increases when knitting her "Faroese-shaped Shawl" from Knitter's best: Shawls and Scarves.
I have knitted regular faroese shawl(s) before, but I was really caught with my pants down at the massive increases Myrna Stahman comes up with.
(What is up with her "Designing" anyways? "My love of lace induced me to switch from Garter-lace to stockinette". What is wrong with Garter-lace in a shawl-type that was designed to work with a square type of stitching (garter)? All stitches have their space in room and time.)
Look, it is a Flutterby Shawl! And in a custom colourway, too!
Stats:
Yarn: Kauni "Rainbow", two almost-repeats left over from my Rainbow Pi shawl. I started with the larger one at the neck edge, and switched to the smaller one, reversing the repeat as I did so to create the illusion of a continuous colour-flow - it almost worked, there is a tiny bit orange in the middle.
Pattern: "Faroese-style Lace" by Myrna Stahman, in the book "Knitter's Best of Shawls and Scarves".
Needles: Holz and Stein, 5mm. Bought on the Faroese Islands when my mother and I went on a shawl-knitting frenzy - I had brought a 5mm in another project and felt really bad that I was able to move my project to a thread and my mother was sitting without needles, so I walked into a (high-end) yarnshop and asked for "5mm needles, as long as you have them". I got 40 cm needles! :-o. My mother did cast on and knit the whole shawl on it (600 stiches), but we never cease to laugh about it every time one of us use these needles.
Thoughts on the pattern: Well-written. Maybe a bit overzealous on the increases, but well... To each their own. I love traditional things, so this shawl does not "do" it for me, seeing as it is something traditional modified into something that only passingly resembles the original. I still dont remember why I chose this pattern... Maybe because my fingers were itching to start?
I *love* the seed stitch borders! I loved them so much that I chose to add a seed stitch edging on the lower side instead of the large edging on the original shawl. It looks so neat.
This shawl will probably join the Guardsman and the Polar Bear in the "Donation" basket. Plus I feel so good about using up a left-over :)
Have a really nice day!
Lene
PS: Please dont mind the p*rn ads in the sidebar - I can do nothing about them, except for hoping they will go away soon :)
The sweet, slow days of summer, when the sun beats down and you sit and talk, sip cool water and knit slowly, put the knitting away and just enjoy the sun.
Days like these have been mine for the last week, and there are many more to come as summer rolls on and the family moves on to the summer cottage.
At the scout camp, I have not knitted many a stitch - a swatch in "Deep Sea" 8/2 Kauni is all I have done.
Nevertheless, the Rainbow Kauni leftovers were knitted into a shawl/scarf - I thought I was knitting a small slightly lopsided triangle shawl, but I had underestimated Myrna Stahmans increases when knitting her "Faroese-shaped Shawl" from Knitter's best: Shawls and Scarves.
I have knitted regular faroese shawl(s) before, but I was really caught with my pants down at the massive increases Myrna Stahman comes up with.
(What is up with her "Designing" anyways? "My love of lace induced me to switch from Garter-lace to stockinette". What is wrong with Garter-lace in a shawl-type that was designed to work with a square type of stitching (garter)? All stitches have their space in room and time.)
Look, it is a Flutterby Shawl! And in a custom colourway, too!
Stats:
Yarn: Kauni "Rainbow", two almost-repeats left over from my Rainbow Pi shawl. I started with the larger one at the neck edge, and switched to the smaller one, reversing the repeat as I did so to create the illusion of a continuous colour-flow - it almost worked, there is a tiny bit orange in the middle.
Pattern: "Faroese-style Lace" by Myrna Stahman, in the book "Knitter's Best of Shawls and Scarves".
Needles: Holz and Stein, 5mm. Bought on the Faroese Islands when my mother and I went on a shawl-knitting frenzy - I had brought a 5mm in another project and felt really bad that I was able to move my project to a thread and my mother was sitting without needles, so I walked into a (high-end) yarnshop and asked for "5mm needles, as long as you have them". I got 40 cm needles! :-o. My mother did cast on and knit the whole shawl on it (600 stiches), but we never cease to laugh about it every time one of us use these needles.
Thoughts on the pattern: Well-written. Maybe a bit overzealous on the increases, but well... To each their own. I love traditional things, so this shawl does not "do" it for me, seeing as it is something traditional modified into something that only passingly resembles the original. I still dont remember why I chose this pattern... Maybe because my fingers were itching to start?
I *love* the seed stitch borders! I loved them so much that I chose to add a seed stitch edging on the lower side instead of the large edging on the original shawl. It looks so neat.
This shawl will probably join the Guardsman and the Polar Bear in the "Donation" basket. Plus I feel so good about using up a left-over :)
Have a really nice day!
Lene
PS: Please dont mind the p*rn ads in the sidebar - I can do nothing about them, except for hoping they will go away soon :)
... link
Tuesday, 11. July 2006
No, I didnt die or bury myself in wool.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 23:08h
Actually, I am at a scouts camp: A Jamborette, and oh how I love being here - we have one every 5 years, so there is a lot of "looking forward" and just a little of "Being here".
Now, when I get back, I will update with my finished "Scarf" in Kauni-leftovers, so dont despair, there will soon be daily (semidaily) action on here, with new pictures and fun projects.
Have a really nice day.
Lene
Now, when I get back, I will update with my finished "Scarf" in Kauni-leftovers, so dont despair, there will soon be daily (semidaily) action on here, with new pictures and fun projects.
Have a really nice day.
Lene
... link
Monday, 3. July 2006
Future Plans.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 18:48h
I remember talking about a handspun sweater, black and with cables, in this post. By now, I have stashed two kilos, more or less, of black(ish) wool.
One kilo black wool from the Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, already scoured and carded, and one kilo of random black sheep, a very happy little sheep I might add, living near our summer cottage on a lush green pasture.
I am hoping to recieve a whole fleece of grey/black wool yet, so I will certainly have choices!
This progress is one I want to share with the blog, as I fear that I will never get around to start if I cannot apply some pressure to myself in the process - re the Yarnharlot who is on her third year of spinning for a Manly Gansey - slowly, but surely.
Because July 1st has already passed, August 1st is undercertain because of moving (Yes, I was admitted into the organ school!), September 1st is sure to be very hot, October 1st will see the start of my spinning and knitting adventure.
I will post weekly technique and spinning updates, to ensure that if anybody should want to embark on their first "spin-and-knit"-adventure, they could follow in my footsteps and have at least a faint idea of what they are doing.
Prior to this I might run a week of "Learn-to-Spin", to refresh my own "spinning memory" and polish some techniques.
Who knows, maybe I can make someone want to learn to spin too? :-)
Have a really nice day - I am just plugging along on The Marianne Sleeve (slowly) and the rainbow-pi-leftover-shawl.
Lene
One kilo black wool from the Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, already scoured and carded, and one kilo of random black sheep, a very happy little sheep I might add, living near our summer cottage on a lush green pasture.
I am hoping to recieve a whole fleece of grey/black wool yet, so I will certainly have choices!
This progress is one I want to share with the blog, as I fear that I will never get around to start if I cannot apply some pressure to myself in the process - re the Yarnharlot who is on her third year of spinning for a Manly Gansey - slowly, but surely.
Because July 1st has already passed, August 1st is undercertain because of moving (Yes, I was admitted into the organ school!), September 1st is sure to be very hot, October 1st will see the start of my spinning and knitting adventure.
I will post weekly technique and spinning updates, to ensure that if anybody should want to embark on their first "spin-and-knit"-adventure, they could follow in my footsteps and have at least a faint idea of what they are doing.
Prior to this I might run a week of "Learn-to-Spin", to refresh my own "spinning memory" and polish some techniques.
Who knows, maybe I can make someone want to learn to spin too? :-)
Have a really nice day - I am just plugging along on The Marianne Sleeve (slowly) and the rainbow-pi-leftover-shawl.
Lene
... link
Friday, 30. June 2006
One step forwards...
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 15:40h
and two steps backwards.
Ripping out over half a sleeve is not the proper way to "make progress", it is more like... ssergorp. I was making a lot of ssergorp yesterday.
HM :-/
Ripping back to before the status of the first sleeve picture.
Ew!
Worst of all, I knew it was wrong the whole time, but I somehow succumbed to the belief that it might just iron itself out while I continued to knit... That the fact that I could put my arm into the sleeve two times might rectify itself as the sleeve progressed...
Needless to say, no miracle happened and the sleeve stayed as wide as it were, and only ripping would save my sorry ass.
My only solace: It will go much faster this time around now that I know my cable pattern (it is very difficult with just two stitches in one arm), and I have less stitches - right now around 20 less, and I will increase very slowly from here on.
Have a really nice friday
Lene
Ripping out over half a sleeve is not the proper way to "make progress", it is more like... ssergorp. I was making a lot of ssergorp yesterday.
HM :-/
Ripping back to before the status of the first sleeve picture.
Ew!
Worst of all, I knew it was wrong the whole time, but I somehow succumbed to the belief that it might just iron itself out while I continued to knit... That the fact that I could put my arm into the sleeve two times might rectify itself as the sleeve progressed...
Needless to say, no miracle happened and the sleeve stayed as wide as it were, and only ripping would save my sorry ass.
My only solace: It will go much faster this time around now that I know my cable pattern (it is very difficult with just two stitches in one arm), and I have less stitches - right now around 20 less, and I will increase very slowly from here on.
Have a really nice friday
Lene
... link
Thursday, 29. June 2006
Some old FO's.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 23:13h
In the "pictureless" era of this blog, I completed some more Jean Greenhowe toys.
I mentioned them, but was unable to provide pictures.
Now, that I finally got my fabulous new Dell-laptop, I can upload the pictures!
One "Guardsman", with legs that are knit together and only seperate shoes, and one Polar Bear, knit from the pig pattern.
They are leaning on (one of) my knitting basket(s) :-)
They are trying to distract you from the just 4" of progress on the lace cable sleeve.
There has been much other crafting and creative progress, such as painting a Garfield Cat onto a cloak and proof-reading a camp-booklet in english, leaving little time enough to keep my composure and stay normal.
Have a really nice day :-)
Lene
I mentioned them, but was unable to provide pictures.
Now, that I finally got my fabulous new Dell-laptop, I can upload the pictures!
One "Guardsman", with legs that are knit together and only seperate shoes, and one Polar Bear, knit from the pig pattern.
They are leaning on (one of) my knitting basket(s) :-)
They are trying to distract you from the just 4" of progress on the lace cable sleeve.
There has been much other crafting and creative progress, such as painting a Garfield Cat onto a cloak and proof-reading a camp-booklet in english, leaving little time enough to keep my composure and stay normal.
Have a really nice day :-)
Lene
... link
Wednesday, 28. June 2006
Yummy yummy yummy...
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 13:57h
...I got super-fresh hunny, and it tastes so good!
That is exactly what I got, as we always buy our honey from a local honey-producer, and he came with the 40 pounds we ordered this year today. He even included four pounds of super-fresh honey that was made last week as a courtesy.
I just had two pieces of dark bread with this incredibly rich and sweet honey, a mix of everything good that blooms around here. This is a "Farmers Honey", nothing fancy and tastes best fresh on black bread without butter. Just perfect.
Oh, there is also some sleevage to be seen:
Honey... yumm... and the beginning of a sleeve. The pattern drives me batty with only 2 stitches in one "arm" of the cable!
I continue to enjoy this sweater and the yarn. The shawl project which is in the coming will be made of Evilla or Kauni yarn, but which one of the 4 colourways I have, will be the victim?
I think the rainbow will bite the dust with large needles and simple garter st., to make room for some fabulous new colours.
The blue-purple? The new green/blue/lilac/pink? The Deep Sea (in front)? Maybe even the leftovers from the Rainbow Pi? (I have two almost-repeats of that left over *grins*).
Have a really nice day with whatever nice products of the nature you chose to enjoy it with :)
Lene
That is exactly what I got, as we always buy our honey from a local honey-producer, and he came with the 40 pounds we ordered this year today. He even included four pounds of super-fresh honey that was made last week as a courtesy.
I just had two pieces of dark bread with this incredibly rich and sweet honey, a mix of everything good that blooms around here. This is a "Farmers Honey", nothing fancy and tastes best fresh on black bread without butter. Just perfect.
Oh, there is also some sleevage to be seen:
Honey... yumm... and the beginning of a sleeve. The pattern drives me batty with only 2 stitches in one "arm" of the cable!
I continue to enjoy this sweater and the yarn. The shawl project which is in the coming will be made of Evilla or Kauni yarn, but which one of the 4 colourways I have, will be the victim?
I think the rainbow will bite the dust with large needles and simple garter st., to make room for some fabulous new colours.
The blue-purple? The new green/blue/lilac/pink? The Deep Sea (in front)? Maybe even the leftovers from the Rainbow Pi? (I have two almost-repeats of that left over *grins*).
Have a really nice day with whatever nice products of the nature you chose to enjoy it with :)
Lene
... link
Monday, 26. June 2006
Picturesque.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 18:23h
Grey-Green Sweaters
(Does anybody have a good idea for a name? I am at a loss).
Knitting commences on this little thing, it seems as though i am on a knitting kick, 35cm/13.7" done already and it seems as though I can power through the body today.
Then I will cast on sleeves, with picot-edgings and customably designed sleeve-cables. When both sleeves are long enough for a seam-less yoke, I will decide on the upper-body solution of choice.
Such nice, subdued colours
Custom self-designed front chart along with the sleeve chart that will grow as the sleeve progresses - note that the "legs" of the cables are 3 stitches wide in the front cable, and only 2 stitches wide on the sleeve.
This sweater is no doll sweater, but it is indeed a 41" sweater. Some too small for me right now, but it is an incentive, just as the hideous pictures of me and Rosebud are, so I will power on with the weight-loss.
Rosebud
I really want to show pictures of Rosebud, but after finally finding out how to add pictures from this computer, I realise that not one of the pictures I have taken are "Good Enough". Not good enough for a "FO" Picture, at least.
Shawl-corner as photographed while blocking on a twin bed
Have a nice day
Lene
PS: This is not The End Of Shawls! Another one is in the coming.
(Does anybody have a good idea for a name? I am at a loss).
Knitting commences on this little thing, it seems as though i am on a knitting kick, 35cm/13.7" done already and it seems as though I can power through the body today.
Then I will cast on sleeves, with picot-edgings and customably designed sleeve-cables. When both sleeves are long enough for a seam-less yoke, I will decide on the upper-body solution of choice.
Such nice, subdued colours
Custom self-designed front chart along with the sleeve chart that will grow as the sleeve progresses - note that the "legs" of the cables are 3 stitches wide in the front cable, and only 2 stitches wide on the sleeve.
This sweater is no doll sweater, but it is indeed a 41" sweater. Some too small for me right now, but it is an incentive, just as the hideous pictures of me and Rosebud are, so I will power on with the weight-loss.
Rosebud
I really want to show pictures of Rosebud, but after finally finding out how to add pictures from this computer, I realise that not one of the pictures I have taken are "Good Enough". Not good enough for a "FO" Picture, at least.
Shawl-corner as photographed while blocking on a twin bed
Have a nice day
Lene
PS: This is not The End Of Shawls! Another one is in the coming.
... link
Monday, 26. June 2006
Such a cheat.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 00:11h
I finished the Rosebud yesterday, took pictures of it... But I am (as usual) not able to upload them :-(
I regret to inform that Dell is quite slow sending me that computer, and this Mac is not suited for picture uploading.
Project stats:
Pattern: "Rosebud" by Sharon E Miller, of Heirloom Knitting, got it as a freebie when my mother ordered her book as my christmas present.
Yarn: I used the specified yarn, Shetland Cobweb, 6 balls instead of 5. (I used 6 and some more of a 7th, but I had knit a pair of baby botees of the first ball, so I guess 6 would have done it.)
Needles: Generic grey metal needles, size 3,5 mm instead of the specified 3,25 mm because I wished for a larger shawl.
Size: It blocked out to 69" square instead of the 80" I had hoped for, but I blocked it semi-lightly, and it is already too large for both of the women I had thought of gifting it to.
Knitting time: Started March, 10. Finished June, 24. Had a Three-week-hiatus while in TaiWan, and a Two-week-hiatus while knitting Rainbow Pi. For the rest, it has been on-and-off knitting, a few rows here and there.
General Knitting Experience: I did everything I could to make it harder on me - provisional cast-on, knitting borders in the round, the cheating way, graft edging stitches together etc. If it were knitted the simple way, I am sure it would be a lot easier. However, I feel fit to tackle another, more complex pattern now. Maybe accompanied by a recent find (Well, from Friday) in a small wool store, a 100-gram-cone of 60/2 silk from Star Silk? By my math skills there should be 3000 metres in this cone, probably enough for a shawl of medium size. (I used 2100 yards for the Rosebud!)
I promise to put up a picture as soon as possible for your wieving pleasure.
I regret to inform that Dell is quite slow sending me that computer, and this Mac is not suited for picture uploading.
Project stats:
Pattern: "Rosebud" by Sharon E Miller, of Heirloom Knitting, got it as a freebie when my mother ordered her book as my christmas present.
Yarn: I used the specified yarn, Shetland Cobweb, 6 balls instead of 5. (I used 6 and some more of a 7th, but I had knit a pair of baby botees of the first ball, so I guess 6 would have done it.)
Needles: Generic grey metal needles, size 3,5 mm instead of the specified 3,25 mm because I wished for a larger shawl.
Size: It blocked out to 69" square instead of the 80" I had hoped for, but I blocked it semi-lightly, and it is already too large for both of the women I had thought of gifting it to.
Knitting time: Started March, 10. Finished June, 24. Had a Three-week-hiatus while in TaiWan, and a Two-week-hiatus while knitting Rainbow Pi. For the rest, it has been on-and-off knitting, a few rows here and there.
General Knitting Experience: I did everything I could to make it harder on me - provisional cast-on, knitting borders in the round, the cheating way, graft edging stitches together etc. If it were knitted the simple way, I am sure it would be a lot easier. However, I feel fit to tackle another, more complex pattern now. Maybe accompanied by a recent find (Well, from Friday) in a small wool store, a 100-gram-cone of 60/2 silk from Star Silk? By my math skills there should be 3000 metres in this cone, probably enough for a shawl of medium size. (I used 2100 yards for the Rosebud!)
I promise to put up a picture as soon as possible for your wieving pleasure.
I do have one thing about this shawl that puzzles me:
How DO you store this huge, delicate, white, sticking-to-itself-thing? Where WOULD you ever wear it? Why DID I ever knit this (a)mazing thing? I am not worthy!
(My best guess is to fold it neatly with chedar chips inbetween and store it in a paper bag. My mother was strongly opposed to letting it lie on the dining table all spread out. At least it would not get crinkled and lose its blocking there...)
Next Project
I did talk about the Grey/Green Evilla Yarn, didnt I?
After consulting a few reference books I decided to make a fold-up hem at the bottom, and picot hems at the sleeves, and to cast on 200 stitches. All well and fine, but after 2" it began to be urgent that I chart out the pattern I wanted on the front and on the sleeves. It is a very simple lace cable. On the front it is 21 stitches wide and will not change shape or size, but for the sleeves I charted a similar cable that starts quite narrow but will widen as the sleeve and my arm widens. It took a bit of trial-and-error, but apart from that I decided to change the soft turns in the cable to sharp ones, I lucked out in my second try of charting it. Charting the sleeve lace was child's play after that :-) I am blessed with a very good visual and geometric sense, which explains my ease of picking up how to chart and ow to construct a pattern.
Currently, this sweater is at 60 rows / 12000 stitches after I started it around noon today. If I keep up this pace it will be finished by saturday, but it is not every day that you sit outside on the deck in wonderfull sunshine, eat strawberries and knit for long hours.
Have a really nice day
Lene
... link
Thursday, 22. June 2006
Rosebud pictures.
knitting_keeps_me_sane, 14:40h
Today I am at my friends house again - the friend who owns this and these.
His computer is actually able to upload pictures! I brought my own camera and took the opportunity to take a picture of Rosebud. As you can see, the border is nearing the fourth corner (Because I cheated and started a few repeats before the first corner to get it just right).
Now I can see the whole shawl evolving, it is amazing and I love every second of seeing this.
Where do YOU sit and knit?
When I am at my friends house, I do think my knitting place is the best of all knitting places in the world:
I love that chair. It is like a big hug. Someday, I hope that I will find a chair like this and be able to take it home with me. Who doesent want a fabulous knitting chair? :)
Have a really nice day
Lene
His computer is actually able to upload pictures! I brought my own camera and took the opportunity to take a picture of Rosebud. As you can see, the border is nearing the fourth corner (Because I cheated and started a few repeats before the first corner to get it just right).
Now I can see the whole shawl evolving, it is amazing and I love every second of seeing this.
Where do YOU sit and knit?
When I am at my friends house, I do think my knitting place is the best of all knitting places in the world:
I love that chair. It is like a big hug. Someday, I hope that I will find a chair like this and be able to take it home with me. Who doesent want a fabulous knitting chair? :)
Have a really nice day
Lene
... link
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